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WASHINGTON – In an attempt to better connect with his voters, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney mentioned a St. Louis businessman during Wednesday’s presidential debate with Barack Obama.

“I’ve talked to a guy who has a very small business,” Romney said while talking about tax cuts for small businesses. “He’s in the electronics business in, in St. Louis.”

Romney said the business has four employees.

“He said he and his son calculated how much they pay in taxes, federal income tax, federal payroll tax, state income tax, state sales tax, state property tax, gasoline tax. It added up to well over 50 percent of what they earned.”

It turns out Romney was talking about Michael Bonadio, who owns Reason Amplifier Co., a St. Peters company that manufacturers guitar amps.

It wasn’t the first time Romney used the St. Louis man as an example, as the Republican presidential candidate has been making similar references to him around the country.

Bonadio, 63, says he started the guitar amplifier business seven years ago with his son after working for years in corporate marketing and advertising. He co-owns Reason with his son, Anthony.

News 4 is talking to Bonadio and will have his reaction to being mentioned in the debate coming up at News 4 at 10:00.